1. Introduction
and applicable regulatory provisions
1. At the Assembly sitting on
22 January 2018, Ms Maryvonne Blondin (France, SOC) and several members
of the Assembly challenged on procedural grounds the still unratified
credentials of the Andorran national delegation to the Parliamentary
Assembly, in accordance with Rule 7.1.b of
the Rules of Procedure, on the ground that the delegation in question
comprised no female representative, in violation of Rule 6.2.a. She pointed out that while the
Andorran delegation indeed presented perfect parity – two men, two
women –, the female members were, however, merely substitutes.
2. Resolution 1781
(2010) “A minimum of 30% of representatives of the under-represented
sex in Assembly national delegations” amended Rules 6.2.
a and 7.1.
b of
the Rules of Procedure and laid down new conditions regarding gender
representation, by strengthening the existing provisions to ensure
more balanced participation of women and men.
3. The second sentence of Rule 6.2.
a provides
that:
“National delegations shall
include the under-represented sex at least in the same percentage
as is present in their parliaments and, at a very minimum, one member of the under-represented sex appointed
as a representative”.
4. The failure to include at least one member of the under-represented
sex as a representative in a national delegation is explicitly acknowledged
in Rule 7.1.
b of the Rules
of Procedure as a ground for challenging the credentials of the
delegation in question:
“Credentials
may be challenged by at least ten members of the Assembly present
in the Chamber, belonging to at least five national delegations,
on stated procedural grounds based upon:... the principles in Rule
6.2, that national parliamentary delegations should be composed
so as to ensure a fair representation of the political parties or
groups in their parliaments and should include in any case one member of the under-represented
sex, appointed as a representative.”
5. The Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional
Affairs must therefore examine whether the composition of the Andorran
delegation violates the principles set out in Rule 6.2.a of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure.
6. Lastly, under the terms of Rule 7.2, “[i]f the Committee concludes
that the credentials should be ratified, it may submit an opinion
to the President of the Assembly, who shall read it out in the plenary
sitting of the Assembly or the Standing Committee, without debate.
If the Committee concludes that the credentials should not be ratified
or that they should be ratified but that some rights of participation
or representation should be denied or suspended, the Committee's
report shall be placed on the agenda for debate within the prescribed deadlines”.
2. Conformity of the composition
of the parliamentary delegation of Andorra with Rule 6.2 of the Assembly's
Rules of Procedure
7. The Andorran Parliament – the Consell General – has presented
the credentials of its delegation for the Assembly’s 2018 session.
The credentials show that the Andorran delegation does not include
a women as a representative.
2.1. The credentials of the members
of the Andorran delegation sent on 18 January 2018
8. In accordance with Articles
25 and 26 of the Statute of the Council of Europe (ETS No. 1), the
Andorran parliamentary delegation is entitled to two representatives
and two substitutes. According to the report of the President of
the Assembly on the examination of credentials of representatives
and substitutes for the first part of the 2018 Ordinary Session
of the Assembly (
Doc. 14472), the Andorran parliamentary delegation is composed
as follows:
Representatives
- Mr Carles JORDANA (Democrat
Group)
- Mr Víctor NAUDI ZAMORA (Mixed Group)
Substitutes
- Ms Judith PALLARÉS (Liberal
Group)
- Ms Patrícia RIBERAYGUA (Democrat Group)
9. The credentials of the Andorran
delegation were submitted by letter to the President of the Assembly dated
18 January 2018.
![(2)
– Substitutes: Ms Sílvia Eloïsa BONET (Mixed
parliamentary group), Ms Patrícia RIBERAYGUA (Democrat Group).](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
Following
receipt of the credentials, the Table Office of the Parliamentary
Assembly contacted the delegation secretariat. On 19 January, a
letter from Mr Vicenç Mateu Zamora,
Síndic
General (Speaker of the Andorran Parliament), sent to
the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly, stated that
the current composition of the Andorran delegation, approved “following
an extraordinary election [on 18 January]”, was the result of “an
internal reorganisation of two parliamentary groups” and gave an
assurance that the
Consell General would
take “as soon as possible the necessary measures to rectify the
composition of the national delegation”.
10. It should also be noted that reference is expressly made to
these regulatory provisions of Rule 6 in the letter sent each year
by the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly to presidents
and speakers of the member States' parliaments at the beginning
of the month before the opening of the new session, to be borne
in mind by them in appointing their delegations.
2.2. Assessment
11. The challenge to the credentials
of the Andorran delegation is based on the failure to comply with
the provision requiring delegations to appoint, as a representative,
at least one member of the under-represented sex (Rule 6.2.
a of the Rules of Procedure). In
view of the composition of the delegation as shown above, and the
table showing the representation of men and women in the Andorran
Parliament,
![(3)
The
Andorran Parliament has nine female members (32.14%) and 19 male
members (67.86%).](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
it is clear that women form
the category of the under-represented sex.
12. The delegation whose credentials have been challenged clearly
fails to meet the condition established in Rule 6.2.a that national delegations should
include at least one member of the under-represented sex appointed
as a representative.
13. Reference should be made to the Assembly's position in principle,
restated in its
Resolution
1585 (2007) on gender equality principles in the Parliamentary Assembly,
according to which national parliaments should ensure that their
national delegations to the Assembly comprise a percentage of women
in at least the same proportions as they are present in the national
parliament “with the aim of achieving, as a minimum, a 30% representation
of women, bearing in mind that the threshold should be 40%”.
2.3. Precedents
14. It was in 2004 that the Assembly
first examined a challenge of credentials relating to the lack of
balanced representation between the sexes: there were no female
members in the delegations of Ireland and Malta (having at least
one member of the under-represented sex was an obligation under
the Rules of Procedure at that time). The Assembly had then decided
to ratify the credentials of the Irish and Maltese delegations but
to combine this with the suspension of the voting rights of the
members of the delegations concerned in the Assembly and its bodies
until the composition of those delegations was brought into conformity
with the Rules of Procedure.
![(4)
See Doc. 10051, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities
of 27 January 2004, and Resolution 1360
(2004).](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
15. In the explanatory memorandum in that report, the Committee
on Rules of Procedure had considered that “it would go too far to
declare in such a case the whole national delegation as being not
in conformity with the Rules and to refuse ratification of the credentials
of all members” and that “the Assembly cannot itself select which
of the seats allocated to a national parliamentary delegation is
not correctly filled and cannot arbitrarily declare the credentials
of a certain delegation member as not ratified”.
16. A second precedent was set in January 2011 when the Assembly
examined a challenge on procedural grounds of the still unratified
credentials of the parliamentary delegations of Montenegro, San
Marino and Serbia, with the same root cause, namely that they did
not include a woman in the capacity of a representative. The Assembly
had then decided to ratify the credentials of the parliamentary
delegations concerned but to suspend their members’ right to vote
in the Assembly and in its bodies as from the beginning of the next
part-session and until such time as the composition of these delegations
complied with the Rules of Procedure.
![(5)
Resolution 1789 (2011) and report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities
and Institutional Affairs of 24 January 2011 (Doc. 12488).](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
17. On that occasion, the Committee on Rules of Procedure noted
in its report,
![(6)
Op.
cit., paragraph 23.](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
that, “for small parliaments, it
may be difficult to ensure that the composition of parliamentary
delegations complies with all the criteria laid down by the Rules
of Procedure – fair representation of parties or political groups
and gender representation. (…) The Committee also accepts that procedures
in certain parliaments do not enable them to easily amend the composition
of their parliamentary delegations insofar as those procedures provide
for the appointment of delegations for the whole duration of the
legislature, the consultation of or decision by the political groups,
or the need for the composition to be ratified in plenary session”.
18. In June 2013, the Assembly examined a challenge to the credentials
of the Icelandic parliamentary delegation, which comprised no female
representative. The Assembly decided to adopt the same stance as
it had in 2011 and ratify the credentials of the Icelandic delegation
but suspend its members' voting rights with effect from the beginning
of the following part-session if the composition of the delegation
had not been brought into conformity with the Rules of Procedure
by then.
![(7)
Resolution 1944 (2013) and report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities
and Institutional Affairs of 25 June 2013 (Doc. 13246).](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
19. Lastly, in January 2017, the Assembly applied the same “case
law” regarding the challenge to the credentials of the Slovak parliamentary
delegation, for the same reason – the fact that there was no female member
appointed as a representative – and decided to ratify the credentials
of the delegation, but to suspend the voting rights of its members
in the Assembly and its bodies with effect from the beginning of
the Assembly's following part-session, if the composition of the
delegation had not been brought into conformity with the Rules of
Procedure in the meantime.
![(8)
Resolution 2148 (2017) and report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities
and Institutional Affairs of 26 January 2017 (Doc. 14247).](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
3. Conclusions
20. The Committee on Rules of Procedure,
Immunities and Institutional Affairs considers that the credentials of
the Andorran parliamentary delegation have been legitimately challenged
on the ground that the delegation does not comprise at least one
female representative, in violation of Rule 6.2.a of the Rules of Procedure.
21. At its meeting on 23 January 2018, the Committee on Rules
of Procedure heard the observations made by Mr Jordana, Chairperson
of the Andorran delegation. He emphasised the commitment of the
Andorran Parliament to promote balanced representation of the sexes,
as illustrated by the equal gender composition of the delegation.
He also stressed the difficulty for small delegations to comply
in their composition with the criteria of fair representation of
political parties or groups and balanced representation of the sexes.
22. The Committee on Rules of Procedure therefore took the view
that, in this case, it should adopt the same position in respect
of the Andorran delegation as was adopted in 2011, 2013 and 2017
in similar cases.
23. Consequently, in accordance with Rule 10.1 of the Rules of
Procedure,
![(9)
10.1.c. ratification of the credentials,
or confirmation of ratification of the credentials together with
depriving or suspending the exercise of some of the rights of participation
or representation of members of the delegation concerned in the
activities of the Assembly and its bodies.”](/nw/images/icon_footnoteCall.png)
and
bearing in mind the assurances provided by the Andorran Parliament,
the committee decided to propose that the Assembly ratify the credentials
of the Andorran parliamentary delegation, but provide for the automatic
suspension of the voting rights of its members in the Assembly and
its bodies in accordance with Rule 10.1.
c of
the Rules of Procedure, with effect from the beginning of the Assembly's
April 2018 part-session, if the composition of the delegation has
not been brought into conformity with Rule 6.2.
a of the Rules of Procedure by then
and until conformity is achieved.